


Concrete Bird

by indistinct_echo



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Introspection, M/M, No Dialogue, Parallel Stories, Pre-Relationship, pre-Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27412165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indistinct_echo/pseuds/indistinct_echo
Summary: It's difficult feeling like the only one. And, once he finds people like him, Phil learns that decoys can't give him love.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 20
Kudos: 39





	Concrete Bird

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](https://youtu.be/49mD5NVU5VA?t=241) conversation about a concrete bird.  
> You can read about the bird's story [here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/02/02/nigel-the-worlds-loneliest-bird-dies-next-to-the-concrete-decoy-he-loved/).

_ There once was a bird. _

Any good story should have at least one bird, Phil thinks, but too often they are left for the reader to imagine. He’s well acquainted with what it feels like to be ignored or overlooked, knows how terrible it is to exist in the shadows — in the closet — of his own life. Even a bird thinks himself the main character in his own story, doesn’t he?

_ And he was alone. _

Most people of his sort have been or felt similarly at some point. It’s a perplexing oxymoron: knowing that there  _ are _ others but feeling so wholly disconnected from any semblance of community amongst them. Maybe there’s something unifying about that loneliness, as impossible as it seems during the actual experience of the emotion. If Phil could, he’d give himself wings.

_ So, he went to an island. _

Or a university, in Phil’s case.

_ With the hope that there he’d find a flock. _

It’s always a risk to leave home, even if home is a place where he doesn’t fully feel like himself. At least at uni, he knows there is a club for people of his kind. There are students who are  _ out. _ Phil so desperately wants to join them.

_ It was easy to be lured in; he became enamoured with one of the decoys. _

Crushes come easily, and he quickly finds himself falling into strange beds and new experiences. All he really wants is to go on a date.

_ He died next to the decoy in the love-nest he had made for them to share. _

Concrete feathers are still made of cement, and, no matter how much affection Phil bestows on the objects of his admiration, he never receives anything more than the chill of disinterest in return.

_ The bird didn’t have the opportunity or the lifespan to witness the arrival of new birds — others of his kind that were lonely enough to venture out to his quiet island, a place he had unknowingly made inhabitable for those like him. He didn’t know he was the beginning of something great. _

But Phil is not a bird. He is able to turn away from the decoys holding him back from what he truly wants. A companion.

And, when a new creature lands on his doorstep having specifically sought him out, he finally gets to feel the body heat, smooth a hand over ruffled feathers, and press a palm, for the first time, against his lover’s insistent living, beating heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Like/Reblog [here](https://indistinct-echo.tumblr.com/post/634006293037907968/concrete-bird) :)


End file.
